To begin, I would like to introduce myself and my partner. I am Ryan Knapp, the Author behind our first in-progress children’s picture book. I am 21 years old as of writing this and in these past few years since my high-school graduation, I have bounced around pursuing vastly different creative ventures.
From self-improvement on social media to attempting to run small businesses, I have been actively trying to figure out where I fit in the world. For me, leaving a positive mark on the world was always more important than becoming famous or wealthy.
Hence why I pursued self-improvement, hoping that I could help others improve upon their own lives. Although I enjoyed learning and sharing information about mental health to physical health, I was irked by a constant problem.
Despite learning a great deal, I myself was struggling to integrate my own advice into my life in certain aspects. This left me with significant feelings of imposter syndrome, how would I help others if I couldn’t even help myself?
After a great deal of self-reflection, I was still left faced with the same question I had been struggling to find the answer to. That being “What career will allow me to positively influence other people’s lives?”.
I had a fairly good childhood, it wasn’t perfect by any means, but whose is? My one wish was that I had a few values instilled strongly into me that would of made the rest of my life a whole lot easier.
I wished that I had learned to understand that things like failure or rejection are necessary for growth and this is just one lesson of an abundance of valuable lessons to be learned.
This is what led me to children’s picture books, the idea that if you can effectively instill these good values while someone is still young, then you can have an unprecedented positive change on their entire life.
Admittedly, this isn’t a unique concept, this has been done since the dawn of storytelling and while I unfortunately know that I failed to learn these lessons when I was younger despite most likely having people or material try to teach me, I know it’s very possible.
So this is the challenge I want to try and face in my life, hopefully helping others for a long time. But this is only one of the many benefits of children’s book creation.
From being able to run your own business to the satisfying feeling of writing in a Google Doc to then seeing it in your hands in book form, to interacting with kids, to being able to go as far as your imagination can take you, this career while not easy by any stretch, seems to be one very much worth the effort.
Despite feeling like I’ve always had a decent amplitude for writing, I know I have a long-long way to go, but I couldn’t be more excited about it!
But I am only one half of this puzzle, as there is also my amazing girlfriend Samantha, whom is beautifully illustrating the books. Together, we will with any luck, be able to realize my dream and her dream of doing art for a living.
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